By Emre Aytekin
BEIJING (AA) – China on Monday extended greetings to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won a historic reelection on Sunday as the nation’s leader.
“China expresses its congratulations to President Erdogan on his reelection,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told reporters in Beijing.
“We support Türkiye to follow the development path in line with its own national realities, and we believe that it will achieve new successes in development under the leadership of President Erdogan,” Mao said.
According to unofficial results, incumbent President Erdogan won the race with 52.16%, while opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 47.84% of the vote.
More than 64.1 million Turkish citizens were registered to vote, including over 1.92 million who earlier cast their ballots at overseas polling stations. The voter turnout was 85.71% on Sunday’s election.
On May 14, no candidate crossed the 50% threshold in the first round, triggering the presidential runoff, although Erdogan took the lead with 49.52%. On that day, Erdogan’s electoral alliance also won a majority of seats in parliament.
*Writing by Riyaz ul Khaliq in Istanbul